Tracking events over multiple rounds

I have a game where there are 2-4 players and one might pick up an action card that results in an area of the board being affected for a some number of rounds - say three.

In game design is there a suggested or preferred way of keeping track of that event so that after three rounds it gets removed? I can't help but think people will lose count and it will end up lasting four or five rounds unless there's a defined way to keep track.

Unfortunately, given current attitudes toward record-keeping of any kind, and a rash of CRS (Can't Remember Stuff), you really need a good reason to have such several-turn events; better to eliminate them from the design if you can.

I've made my (negative) effect cards to have no duration, but each effect has a counter state, which when done, removes the card. So each negative effect becomes a mini-quest of sorts to be removed.
If the game is competitive (with positive effect cards) the same could be done for the other players, so the enemies could do these mini-quests and remove the positive effects on the competition.